Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata opus 109: Six Variations

Abstract

This case study illustrates the mathematical variant of our concept of creativity as discussed in section 19.2. The musical example we are looking at in this chapter is the third movement of Beethoven’s piano Sonata in E-major, op. 109, which is a sequence of six variations on the sonata’s main theme, and which is titled “Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung” (“Lyrical, with deepest sentiment”). We mainly follow the brilliant analysis by Jürgen Uhde (1974, p. 465 ff.).